Pentagon officials told the House Armed Services Committee in a classified briefing last month that Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, an assessment that was surely unwelcome news in Kyiv, where retaking the peninsula is one of the government’s core goals for the war.
A Ukrainian attempt to retake Crimea would also be a red line for Vladimir Putin that could lead to a wider Russian response, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Zoom call with a group of experts Wednesday.